What is GMHA?

Greater Manchester Housing Action was founded in November 2015 in the context of the worsening housing crisis and city-regional devolution. We believed this offered a political opportunity to remake the local political landscape and open up conversations about the ‘right to the city’.

Since our formation, we have grown to be a key actor within a growing and increasingly powerful housing movement in the city-region. We have built an effective network of organisers, community campaigners and progressive academics from across the progressive political spectrum to advocate for radical leftwing solutions to the housing crisis and keep the issue high on the political agenda.

We want to live in a city-region where everybody has a safe and stable roof over their head, regardless of income or social position. The city-region should be run in the interests of its citizens, and the power of finance capital to reshape the city-region in its interests must be restricted. We want houses to be seen as homes, not investment opportunities for the rich. We believe that Greater Manchester can provide an example to the rest of the country of how to end the housing crisis and to run a 21st century city in an inclusive, socially just and forward thinking way.

Our Theory of Change

We believe that progressive change comes about when ordinary people, through self-organisation and self-education, empower themselves to shape the world in the interests of fairness and social justice. Through organisation we can effect change by building counterpower, changing the political weather and shifting the common sense.

Our mission

GMHA’s mission is to strengthen the housing movement in Greater Manchester. We do this by:

Empowering and educating people across the city-region on housing issues, providing information and collectively developing the skills to bring about progressive change.

Facilitating greater citizen input into housing policy and creating channels for grassroots to speak to power.

Coordinating a network of actors in the housing movement to create maximum political impact through strategic interventions.